Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:194-197
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychiatric consultation in the management of patient ambivalence interfering with the doctor-patient relationship
K Kris
The author describes states of patient ambivalence as a regressive response
to illness that may interfere with the patient-staff alliance. She provides
three illustrations of such ambivalence and tells how they were handled by
psychiatric consultation in an obstetrical hospital. She describes the
characteristics of the difficulties caused by patient ambivalence in the
doctor-patient relationship and makes a number of suggestions for the
management of ambivalence by the psychiatric consultant.
